First late night with Saturn!

[Marky1973]

Well, I was knackered last night, but stuck it out until about 1:30a.m. to pop out with the scope and try and get a good view of Mars and Saturn, as well as try a hunt for other interesting things.

Mars was straight ahead as I set up outside the front door, and easy enough to find. The atmosphere was obviously playng havoc and it was a bit wavy, dropping in and out of focus all the time, but I did managed to make out some colouration on the planet - or at least I thought I did!

Then to Saturn, 25mm (49x mag) and there is was, straight away, great focus, planet and rings, and clear delineation between two....and tiny....but still awesome! 8mm EP was a little dark, so dropped back to the 10mm and enjoyed Saturn at 120x mag. Definite division between the planet and rings and I could make out some banding on the planet itself. I am sure that on a couple of occasions I managed to see a division inthe rings, but that might just have been my imagination!

Then I went looking for M5, which was a [removed word] to find, and very faint.....but I managed to find it by starhopping up from Libra - took a lot of binocular, finder scope and 25mm EP searching, but I eventually found it, which I was pretty chuffed with. I did try and find NGC5897 as it was just down from Saturn, but I think it was too low in the sky when i started looking so gave up quickly - and it is also a lot dimmer than M5, and that was pretty faint!

So ended with another view of Saturn.

But then I had to give up around 3a.m. as my hands were freezing and I was struggling to change EPs without the fear of dropping them - the finder scope was picking up a lot of moisture as well.

But a good evening, a first visit to Saturn, which was just amazing.....I did utter a small "wow" to myself when I first saw it

Got some more clear nights tonight, so hopefully get some early viewing of Jupiter in with the kids, if the rain holds off!

3 weeks in and I have found 3 planets, the moon, 4 Messier objects and several bright stars......so what, that's about 12 down.....how many to go?

[purdo]

Hi, congratulations, you are well pleased.  I am just looking with Binoculars at the moment but I find that I am too shaky holding them. (I don't have a scope yet,) so I am just trawling through all the forums picking upon things and trying to learn a bit as I go on.  What scope do you have?

[Scott]

Well, I was knackered last night, but stuck it out until about 1:30a.m. to pop out with the scope and try and get a good view of Mars and Saturn, as well as try a hunt for other interesting things.

Mars was straight ahead as I set up outside the front door, and easy enough to find. The atmosphere was obviously playng havoc and it was a bit wavy, dropping in and out of focus all the time, but I did managed to make out some colouration on the planet - or at least I thought I did!

Then to Saturn, 25mm (49x mag) and there is was, straight away, great focus, planet and rings, and clear delineation between two....and tiny....but still awesome! 8mm EP was a little dark, so dropped back to the 10mm and enjoyed Saturn at 120x mag. Definite division between the planet and rings and I could make out some banding on the planet itself. I am sure that on a couple of occasions I managed to see a division inthe rings, but that might just have been my imagination!

Then I went looking for M5, which was a [removed word] to find, and very faint.....but I managed to find it by starhopping up from Libra - took a lot of binocular, finder scope and 25mm EP searching, but I eventually found it, which I was pretty chuffed with. I did try and find NGC5897 as it was just down from Saturn, but I think it was too low in the sky when i started looking so gave up quickly - and it is also a lot dimmer than M5, and that was pretty faint!

So ended with another view of Saturn.

But then I had to give up around 3a.m. as my hands were freezing and I was struggling to change EPs without the fear of dropping them - the finder scope was picking up a lot of moisture as well.

But a good evening, a first visit to Saturn, which was just amazing.....I did utter a small "wow" to myself when I first saw it

Got some more clear nights tonight, so hopefully get some early viewing of Jupiter in with the kids, if the rain holds off!

3 weeks in and I have found 3 planets, the moon, 4 Messier objects and several bright stars......so what, that's about 12 down.....how many to go?

Now thats put a smile on my face...don't forget to count jupiters moons (and saturns if you spotted them )

[Bart]

Good report. For your hands, try some anglers gloves. Neoprene, keeps them nice and warm and you can pop out the tips of your index and thumb for the fiddly tasks.

Barry

[trazor]

That first look at Saturn never leaves you, truly a WoW moment...............

[Marky1973]

Hi Purdo.....need to get some decent binoculars myself....mine have small lenses, so not great. I have a Skywatcher 200p Dobsonian - 8 inch reflector. My first scope, and it is a beast, but it gives some superb views in a pretty light polluted location - can't wait to get it out into darker site some time. It's heavy and takes a little while to get used to, but it is a fantastic scope.

Auspom, damn, I forgot Jupiters moons! I'll have to start my checklist again......

Definitely need to get some gloves  Barry - good suggestion on the angling gloves though.....and a thermos I reckon....

Trazor - I think I caught myself a bit by surprise....got it lined up in the finder scope and then moved to the 25mm eyepiece and it was already focussed....pretty much took my breath away!

[Astro Imp]

Good one Marky, there are some views that stay with you forever, that first view of Saturn along with Jupiter are certainly amongst the best.

Good luck, there are plenty more goodies awaiting your inspection.

Enjoy.

[toftm]

I uttered similar words getting jupiter & 4 moons up through an old spotting scope last week! Saturn is next on the list

[Marky1973]

@Alan - oh yeah! Too many stars and so little time! :-)

And @Toftm - good luck with Saturn - the 31st March is supposed to be a good viewing time according to Sky at Night magazine, so fingers crossed for good weather!

[Paul73]

Worth staying up for!!!

I defy anyone, even non astronomers, to see Saturn through a scope and not crack a smile.

Paul